Claim: India carried out a drone attack on Faisal Mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
Fact: Officials have confirmed that there was no attack on Faisal Mosque. An accompanying video is from an unrelated fire from 2024.
On 8 May 2025, social media posts emerged online claiming that Islamabad’s Faisal Mosque had been targeted by India through a drone attack. An accompanying video showed a fire near the capital city’s landmark structure and one of the posts was captioned as follows:
“شہر اقتدار فیصل مسجد کے قریب ڈرون حملہ کی اطلاعات اللہ پاک ہمارے ملک پاکستان کی حفاظت فرمائے آمین یارب العالمین
[Shehr-e-Iqtidar [City of Power]: Reports of a drone attack near the Faisal Mosque. May Allah protect our country, Pakistan. Amen, O Lord of the Worlds.]”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found that it matched clips of a fire near Faisal Mosque from 2024.
According to different media reports from 28 May 2024, a fire broke out a short distance away from Faisal Mosque when “huge flames and fumes of smoke [were] rising in the air”. Citizens travelling on that road at the time “captured the fire scene and posted it online”.
The clip had also appeared here, here, and here on social media in May 2024.
We also checked the social media pages of the local administration and police to verify if any such incident actually took place.
In a Facebook post on 8 May 2025, the Islamabad Deputy Commissioner’s Office wrote, “Immediately after reports of a drone crashing near Faisal Mosque, the district administration and police reached the site. However, the rumor proved false.
“Citizens are requested not to pay attention to rumours regarding such matter(s). No drone has crashed in Islamabad. For verified news, follow DC Islamabad’s social media accounts,” the post — which was also shared on X (formerly Twitter) — added.
Separately, Islamabad Police also requested people “to avoid sharing any unconfirmed news” in a Facebook post but did not specifically mention the Faisal Mosque claim.
The video in the claim is from 2024. At that time, Islamabad’s Margalla Hills were battling persistent forest fires as temperatures hit over 40°C, Reuters had reported on 31 May 2024. A police spokesperson said authorities were “investigating the reasons for the fire and a special team had been formed for the probe by the city’s police chief”, the publication added.
The blazes erupted “at two different spots close to the famed Faisal Mosque and the Naval headquarters”, Arab News had reported on 1 June 2024, quoting authorities. “Bush fires erupted at 15 different locations on Margalla Hills on Tuesday, prompting authorities to order a probe to ascertain if they were started deliberately,” the publication had added.
The same day, according to Dawn, at least three people were arrested on suspicion of “involvement in the fire incidents on Margalla Hills”. The publication quoted a retired officer of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as saying, “Multiple incidents of fires on a daily basis for the last around one week is something unprecedented. These fires could not be natural; therefore, there is a need to find out the involvement of mischievous elements.”
At the time, CDA Chairperson Mohammad Ali Randhawa posted about the arrest as well, saying, “15 FIRs have been lodged regarding the recent fires at Margalla Hills. We will ensure all those responsible are held accountable. We are committed to protect our beautiful hills at any cost.”
Visuals of the forest fires were posted by The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters Pictures.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that posts claiming there was a drone attack on Faisal Mosque are false.
Operation Sindoor and Pakistan’s response
Indian airstrikes in Pakistan
In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian military launched Operation Sindoor and sent missiles at least six targets inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These strikes, which constituted the most serious escalation of military hostilities between the two nations since 1971, killed at least 31 people — including three children — and wounded at least 57 others according to Pakistani authorities.
India claimed that its missiles struck nine “terrorist camps” whereas Pakistan asserted that the targets chosen by India were civilian neighborhoods in densely-populated areas. While it is difficult to independently ascertain whether “terrorist camps” were the target of India’s strikes, on-ground footage and reporting from local hospitals showed that a number of women and children had been killed and injured in the attacks. This lends credibility to Pakistan’s assertions that civilians were harmed, contrary to claims made by Indian officials.
Notably, military strikes in the Pakistani Punjab are across a recognised international border and constitute a major escalation relative to the surgical strikes carried out along the Line of Control (LoC), the ceasefire line that divides Pakistan-administered Kashmir from the Indian-administered one. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the airstrikes, saying his country had “every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India”.
The Pahalgam attack
The strikes carried out by India as part of Operation Sindoor were purportedly in response to the terror attack that took place in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on 22 April 2025, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists.
India has blamed the attacks on Pakistan whereas Islamabad has denied any involvement and demanded a neutral investigation.
The Resistance Front — a group that Indian officials maintain is a proxy front for the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — initially claimed responsibility for that attack but later retracted its statement.
The Indus Waters Treaty
Soon after the attack in Pahalgam, the Indian government announced the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. The landmark water-sharing treaty, which had been in place since 1960, had previously endured despite many instances of armed conflict between the neighbouring nuclear countries.
After a UNSC meeting to discuss the matter, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Now, India’s water will flow for India’s benefit, it will be conserved for India’s benefit, and it will be used for India’s progress”. On the other hand, Pakistan stated that attempts to stop or divert Pakistan’s water would be considered an “act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power”.
Indian Jets in Pakistan
Soon after Indian missile strikes hit multiple locations in Pakistan, the Pakistani military announced that they had shot down five Indian warplanes, including several Rafale Fifth Generation fighter jets.
India has not yet responded directly to this claim but a growing number of media outlets have confirmed that at least some Indians planes, including at least one Rafale, did in fact go down during the early morning hours of 7 May 2025.
Drone War
On the morning of 8 May, India launched a wave of drone attacks across Pakistan, killing at least one person and wounding several. Pakistan military spokesperson claimed that 25 Indian drones were shot down in different locations across the country and, on the following day, claimed that the number of drones shot down had grown to 77.
At this time, Soch Fact Check has not been able to independently verify the exact number of Indian drones that entered Pakistan or how many were shot down. Debris from drones has been found in a number of locations and Soch Fact Check has visited the two crash sites in Karachi and two in Rawalpindi.
Indian authorities claimed that the drone attacks were in response to a Pakistani attack on Amritsar the previous night, whereas Pakistan denied that any attacks had been carried out.
Subsequent to the drone attacks on Pakistan, India said that Pakistan carried out missile and drone attacks on Jammu in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Pakistan also denied this allegation, adding that it was “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan”.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here and here on Instagram, and here and here on YouTube.
Conclusion: Officials have confirmed that there was no attack on Faisal Mosque. An accompanying video is unrelated to the recent escalation between India and Pakistan and actually shows a fire from 2024.
Background image in cover photo: Mudassir Zaheer
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